Journeyman: What Could Have Been
Thirteenth Episode Proves NBC Is Mistaken
After watching “Perfidia,” the thirteenth installment of Journeyman and the last completed episode of the initial series order, it remains difficult to believe that NBC recently decided not to pick up the science-fiction drama for a full season. The next-to-last broadcast network ratings-wise is in obvious need of shows capable of building large and loyal audiences. What Journeyman lacked in each department was a salvageable problem that could have been fixed easily by giving the show more time to grow, as well as a less brutal time slot to help it attract more viewers.
As the situation now stands, with no more Journeyman on the horizon unless NBC executives finally come to their senses, the series did manage to go out on a high note rather than a disappointing one with last night’s excellent swan song “Perfidia.”
The episode is both intriguing and revealing on several levels. For the first time ever, the title character Dan Vassar (Kevin McKidd) has the opportunity to meet another time traveler besides his former significant other Livia Beale (Moon Bloodgood). The man, Evan Patterson (Don McManus), is at first trapped in a mental institution, where he plots to escape in order to visit his one true love, Lauren (Joanna Going), the wife of a prominent government employee who no longer remembers him. As the situation unfolds, Dan and Livia’s disbelief that Evan is really a fellow traveler gradually diminishes with the reality of just how integral the newcomer is to Dan’s ability to defy the laws of time.
It’s the final scenes of the episode, however, that carry the most poignancy and that reveal the promise of which direction the series could have gone in next if it had more time. In one of them, Dan finally encounters the elusive Elliot Langley (Tom Everett) in an elevator and learns why the scientist has been so keen to avoid him. Then in the closing scene, Dan’s wife Katie (Gretchen Egolf) has an experience of her own that will surely transform how she feels about her husband’s place in the world. What a smart decision by the showrunners to end the episode and perhaps the series with such a subtle yet stunning incident. It alone proved that Journeyman would have risen to the occasion quite well in the remainder of a full season.
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Kevin McKidd/Journeyman photo courtesy of NBC
